Protectors of Emerald City

to die!

Following their spectacular escape from the SS Bakron, our heroes found themselves stranded in space. R2 and D2 further introduced themselves, discussing their roles in research and development. While they were the original designers of the Behemoth, they couldn’t recall anything that could be used to destroy it.

Soon the Protectors saw a speck of a spaceship in the distance. As it came closer, they realized it was the Hive, come to rescue them. Soon they were all aboard, and reunited with their Plib friends.

However, the Plibs had some grave news. They had intercepted communications revealing that the Behemoth was headed to Earth. The Behemoth is a ship several times larger than Emerald City that specializes in harvesting adamantite. In approximately a week, it would arrive near Earth and start harvesting. Our heroes put 2 and 2 together with Nek’ilash gloating about Emerald City’s days being numbered to realize the ship would likely be targeting their home.

Additionally, R2 and D2 realized that it was probably very bad that the Bakron still had its research notes about Doctor Tau’s gloves. They might be able to use them to miniaturize their portal systems.

There was a significant amount of debate between R2 and D2, the Plibs, and the Protectors over our heroes’ next steps, given this new knowledge. In the end they decided to go back and capture the Bakron, Dimitri and Olga would destroy the research wing, while the Protectors went to the bridge to commandeer the ship. After incapacitating and capturing Nek’ilash, they would release the ship crew on a deserted but habitable planet, with the intention to let the Borgians know where they were dropped off. The Bakron would then be turned over to the Plibs. Hopefully capturing Nek’ilash would give them some sort of edge against the Behemoth.

Our heroes infiltrated the ship, yada yada, fast forward and they’re in the bridge, completely invisible and undetectable to any reasonable senses thanks to a combination of an invention from Tau and a ritual from Witch. At the helm was Nek’ilash, whose platform was encased in some kind of force-field bubble. Luckily our heroes spotted a large switch next to the platform which read “NEKILASHONLY” on one side and “MEH.” on the other side. Our heroes discretely flipped the switch to MEH, so that the force field would allow them through.

Nek’ilash appeared to be dictating one of his star logs. “Today was a good day…” he began, when K12 suddenly jumped out of the invisibility behind him, holding an icicle to Nek’ilash’s throat. “To die!” K12 finished. “Try anything and you’re dead, buddy,” said K12. “I’m not your buddy, pal. Who are you anyways?” asked Nek’ilash. “Revenge is a dish best served cold,” replied K12. “We’re taking over the ship.” “And how do you think you’re going to accomplish that?” asked Nek’ilash. “Wait, how were we going to accomplish that?” K12 asked himself.

But that thought was interrupted by what seemed to be a large explosion. When our heroes recovered their senses, they saw that Nek’ilash had suddenly transformed into a giant Kraken. The mass increase from the transformation had blasted everyone back, including several of the crocodillian ship crew who were knocked unconscious. Everyone rolled for initiative.

Nek’ilash’s tentacles were deadly, incapacitating either K12 or Witch (the GM can’t remember) in one squeeze! They were quickly brought back to fighting condition by Hoenheim’s healing ability. First our heroes dispatched the remaining conscious crocodillian Allaurons. Then they attacked Nek’ilash repeatedly until he was incapacitated. The Protectors then locked down the bridge.

With Nek’ilash captured, the rest of the ship’s crew was dropped off on a nearby planet. The Bakron was renamed to the Bit’ron, and handed over to the control of the Plebian Liberation Front.

What comes next for our heroes? Will they successfully convince Nek’thulan to spare Emerald City in exchange for the life of his son? Or will they find a way to destroy the Behemoth altogether? And what kind of starship captain begins his log with “Today was a good day” anyways? Find out next time on Protectors of Emerald City!

Let's go! Wait, where are we again?

In this episode of Protectors of Emerald City, our heroes had been captured by Nek’ilash, K12’s nemesis, and were being held abord the S.S. Bakron. K12, Hoenheim, Witch, and Doctor Tau were all in forcefield-laden cages (the same that had held K12 in We Allauroned Alot Today). Hoenheim tried to grow a carbon pole to break open his cage, but it wasn’t able to exert enough force. Doctor Tau noticed a large red button on the wall, but it was too far out of reach for our heroes. Witch used all the power she could muster to use her morph ability to extend her arm to press the button, and was successful!

When Witch did this, the room fell into darkness. K12 lit the room with a flame, which allowed our heroes to see the force fields on their cages were disabled. Hoenheim broke everyone out of their cages, except for K12 who was attempting to break out of his own cage by freezing the metal bars to make them brittle. After a minute or so, K12 was successful and joined the others.

Our heroes wanted to escape the SS Bakron, to be sure, but first they needed to recover their belongings. Most importantly, Doctor Tau was missing his gloves, and did not want to leave them in the hands of the Borgians.

The Protectors decided to infiltrate the security room to find out where the gloves were, and to create further distraction from their whereabouts. On the way they beat up some humanoid robots, and Tau got his hands on a phaser. Inside the security room was a very evil looking Gorilla. Like, don’t worry about beating him up because he’s obviously up to no good. The fight with this gorilla (who was likely a Borgian anyways, I mean, look at how evil his face is) was concluded when Witch took control of him with her magic.

On the security room monitors, our heroes could see that Nek’ilash was in charge of the ship and located in the Bridge. The Gorilla told our heroes that Tau’s gloves were being kept in the science wing. Witch also went to the adjacent room (with all the breakers and ethernet-looking cables) and flipped off a bunch of switches, giving the attendant in that room quite a fright and turning off power in large sections of the ship.

The Gorilla led our heroes to the science wing. On the way, they encountered another squad of humanoid robots, being led by a large lizard-like creature (also presumably a Borgian, with such an evil-looking face, despite having no eyes). The lizard-like creature seemed to immediately know that the Gorilla was being influenced. Doctor Tau was able to discern the cooling vents on these robots which would allow our heroes to shoot at their battery packs, leading to explosion. Over several rounds of combat our heroes defeated this squadron, while the Gorilla being controlled by Witch sat in a corner and ate a banana, having not been given instructions. He didn’t share, because he’s so evil.

When our heroes reached the science wing, Witch instructed the Gorilla to enter the wing, and try to retrieve Tau’s gloves without any trouble. If he couldn’t do this, he was to return to our heroes as soon as possible. The Gorilla entered the room, and spotted a fellow Gorilla and Lizard-thing on the other side of the wing. The lizard-thing was immediately alerted to the controlled Gorilla’s presence, and began approaching it. The Gorilla saw this and retreated. And then we rolled for initiative.

Combat began with Witch’s controlled Gorilla running up to the enemy Lizard-thing, and immediately smacking the Lizard-thing’s head clear off of its body. You really don’t want to get hit by one of these Gorillas when they roll a 20. During combat, Tau put on his gloves to the protests of one of the human (but presumably Allauron) scientists, whom Tau knocked out with a smack to the head from one of the gloves. After some more combat rounds the enemy Gorilla was also subdued.

The other two scientists who had been in the room asked our heroes if they were here to rescue them. They were Plebians, and introduced themselves as R2 and D2. Our heroes explained that they were escaping themselves, but agreed to bring R2 and D2 along. D2 told our heroes that there was a ship in the engineering bay that might be used to escape. Our heroes also considered commandeering the Bakron by taking over the bridge. In the end, they decided to escape (after retrieving the rest of their belongings from a nearby closet).

Miraculously, our heroes reached the engineering bay without incident, and it appeared that nobody was inside. They entered and saw a small vessel in the middle of the room. Tau approached the vessel, and soon the doors behind them closed and alarms began going off in the room. In the distance, a loud speaker was announcing that intruders were in the engineering bay, and to go there at once. Time was ticking.

Tau figured out how to get inside the vessel, and the rest of our heroes (and R2 and D2) followed. Tau attempted to start the vessel, but nothing happened. R2 and D2 and Doctor Tau inspected the ship and quickly found that the battery pack had not been inserted and was plugged in to a nearby charging station. Witch got the Gorilla to insert the battery pack, and our heroes re-entered the vessel, sealing themselves inside.

At this point, enemies began pouring into the room (mostly robots, but also a couple Gorillas and Lizard-things, which seem to be pretty standard Bakron security). Our heroes realized they had no way to open the shutter on the wall that would lead outside the ship! But Tau saved the day, by super-charging his portal glove to open a portal through the wall of the ship large enough to steer the vessel through. When he did so, most of the enemies in the room flew out into space, except for the Gorilla being controlled by Witch who was instructed to hold on to something. Our heroes piloted the vessel out, and escaped the Bakron.

“… so guys, where are we?” asked K12, looking out at an unfamiliar sky.

With our heroes having escaped the Bakron, what is in store for them next? What did Nek’ilash mean when he said it would be “too late” for Emerald City? What’s the story with R2 and D2? Where are our heroes? And how will they know what to do without the guidance of Jean Placard? Find out next time on Protectors of Emerald City!

Where am I? I can't remember...

It’s been about 3 months since this session took place, so this is gonna be short.

Our heroes were at home doing stuff, and each of them was attacked and abducted by something that seemed tailor-made for them. Witch was led into a room with magical books that knocked her out with sleeping gas. Hoenheim and K12 ran into a falcon trainer out in a field who captured them somehow. And Tau was attacked in his lab by someone with an EMP which disabled his gloves.

Our heroes were brought on board the S.S. Bakron and confined to cells like the one in which K12 was originally found. The ship is under the command of Nek’ilash, the Allauron who doomed K12 to become a recon. Nek’ilash spent a fair amount of time gloating over the Protectors’ capture, revealing that it would soon be “too late” for Emerald City, now that the Protectors are out of the picture.

What will happen now? Will the Protectors be able to free themselves? What is in store for Emerald City? How many Hero Points does everyone have? Find out next time on Protectors of Emerald City!

Decompose yourself for this one

Earthquakes were taking place periodically throughout the city. Doctor τ and “R” got in touch and began discussing them. The vibrations had strange waveforms, and they seemed to have originated from a graveyard and a number of garbage dumps, which do not lie on fault lines.

Our heroes investigated, apart from Hoenheim who was intent on finishing the video game Last Dream IV. They went to the last garbage dump that hadn’t been hit by a quake, and when the quake hit they dug deep down. They soon found a giant worm was burrowing throughout the dump. Just as they came up with a plan of attack, the worm left.

But our heroes were hot on its trail, predicting it would hit a nearby graveyard next. They set up for the attack, digging a deep trench along the main rode that intersects the graveyard. When the worm arrived, they attacked!

K12 soon found himself in a sticky situation, devoured by the beast! Witch mind controlled it, but was unable to counter the involuntary digestive impulses of the giant worm. However, K12 took some rock that had been consumed by the creature, and shaped it into a sharp disc sword. With this, he sliced the creature in two, sealing its demise. He celebrated by gathering some of the worm’s internals to use in making Soushma later on.

With the creature and much of this graveyard destroyed, what is in store for our heroes next? Will Humans First use the destruction of another graveyard as fuel to fan the anti-hero flames? What caused this giant worm to come to existence in the first place? Will Hoenheim finally beat that game and rejoin our heroes? Find out next time on Protectors of Emerald City!

Time to unearth some deep-rooted memories

With the Molarian Moss gathered, our heroes left “Sy” to do his science and returned home.

About a month later, Sy contacted Doctor τ, informing him that he thinks he has a way to get K12’s memories and powers back. After gathering together, everyone was beamed up onto the Hive. Sy showed everyone a set of chairs with hairdryer-looking devices connected to a glowing green hub, apparently powered by adamantite. Our heroes would be hooked up to the device, and given a concoction with the Molarian Moss meant to enable their consciousnesses to introspect into minds. Along with the strange-looking device, it would allow the other heroes to enter K12’s mind. The moss would only work for a few hours.

Sy warned our heroes that whatever was locking down K12 may protect itself against them. If they were killed in K12’s mind, they would be braindead, something Hoenheim could not help with. Tau had some objections about experimenting on humans, but Sy assured him that “this sort of thing” has been done before, and that the procedure itself shouldn’t be dangerous. It was just whatever lurks in K12’s mind that they should worry about.

Since there were only three chairs, Hoenheim sat this one out, instead teaching his crow Jobe how to play checkers. Skree skree.

And so Witch, Tau, and K12 were hooked up to this device, and ingested a bitter purple liquid. Soon they fell unconscious. When they woke up, they found themselves lying on a web of black roots. Looking up, they found they were in a city with a strange, alien architecture. It felt familiar to K12. All of the buildings were overgrown with these black root-like vines, or vine-like roots. They all seemed to originate from one direction, where the root of this evil would lie.

As our heroes approached the source, they saw what appeared to be an enormous tree with purple leaves in the distance. As they came closer, they realized this was not a tree, but rather a tall building, overgrown with the same roots as the rest of the city.

Our heroes ventured to the top of the tree. Tau inspected the purple leaves, and found that, unlike normal leaves, they had no veins. He was unable to find a way in through the matting of roots.

Tau and K12 returned to the base of the building and attempted to get in through the overgrown doors. However, when they did so, they heard a roar off in the distance. Witch, who was flying around, led our heroes to the source of the sound, but they could not find anything suspicious. They returned to the tower/tree, and again tried to get into the building.

This time, they pulled away a web of roots. However, when they successfully made an opening, more roots quickly grew over it, fully covering the door. Another roar was heard, this time from the top of the building. Looking up, it appeared that branches were falling on our heroes. But as they grew closer, our heroes knew those were no branches.

A large humanoid golem made of the same black roots as webbed the terrain fell to the ground. It was as tall as three people, and accompanied by five human-sized golems. The large guardian had a bright purple stone as an eye, while the smaller golems sprouted small purple leaves, the same as the tree above. Everyone rolled for initiative.

Our heroes first dispatched of the smaller golems, destroying them with relative ease. This enraged the guardian, who continued to attack our heroes. They landed many successful blows on the guardian, but after each blow the eye of the guardian would glow, and the destroyed roots regrew. “The eye!” exclaimed K12. “It’s the root of his power, we must destroy it!”

Our heroes then focused on the eye of the guardian, and in a few more combat rounds destroyed it. When the eye shattered, the guardian blew away into fine black dust, and the roots covering everything began to do the same.

Soon, our heroes found themselves back in their own bodies, in the real world. K12 began to regain his memories. Back on Allaur, he was a well-known chef named Kal’Tolor who ran a fine dining restaurant. He, like all other Plebians, does not have a family, and grew up in a nursery. Having family is a luxury reserved for Borgians. He grew up with a friend and rival named Kul’Nathan, who also became a chef. K12 began to wonder whether Kul’Nathan and the chefs and sous-chefs that worked at his restaurant are alright.

One day Nek’ilash, son of Nek’thulan, vice-regent of war, came to K12’s restaurant. He ordered a fungi-based dish, and was then displeased that it was made of fungi. K12 suspected that Nek’ilash did not understand the name of the dish, and told him as much when Nek’ilash complained. Out of petty anger, Nek’ilash made sure that K12 was recruited as a recon. As K12 was loaded onto the S.S. Bakron for his preparation, Nek’ilash gloated in K12’s face about how this was all his doing.

K12 also remembered visiting a planet with black, vine-like trees like the ones seen in K12’s mind. That was where his memories and powers were locked. Sy was unsure of what the plants are, but knew a biologist who might help them. She’s a Borgian who goes by the name of Katerina, and ventures around the universe researching life forms. Sy could find Katerina’s whereabouts if they want.

What’s in store for our heroes next time? Will K12 get revenge on Nek’ilash for conscripting him as a recon? Now that the creature is destroyed, will all of K12’s memories and powers return? And what’s the deal with Sy and this Katerina anyways? Find out next time on Protectors of Emerald City!

It's barrels of fungi!

With 50 minutes until session, the GM wrote another quick summary.

Our heroes were thanked by Thomas Arkmann and his secretaries at city hall for saving TAISAR from Humans First. Punk secretary had with a red streak in her hair, wearing a navy blue sailor top and skirt along with red gloves and a red neck tie. Glasses secretary wore glasses, with done-up brown hair, wearing a pencil skirt and tights, and holding a clipboard and pen. Pink secretary had curly pink locks, and was wearing a white sweet lolita dress with pink lacing and a maching parasol.

K12 asked the secretaries for their contact information and was promptly smacked upside the head by Hoenheim. Glasses secretary quickly scribbled a number on a piece of paper and handed it to K12, stating it was the main contact line for Thomas Arkmann’s office.

Arkmann asked our heroes if they wanted anything in return for their deeds. Hoenheim asked for a protective super-shield. Arkmann said they were actually working on something like that at TAISAR, and that he would give Hoenheim the working prototype once it is complete.

Getting ready to go, our heroes considered what happened the last time they all left and asked Doctor Tau to stay behind to keep an eye on Earth as the rest of the heroes went in search of Molarian moss to unlock K12’s powers and memories. Tau was like “no” and arranged for Shadow to keep tabs on what’s going on with the city and contact them by neutrinos if something came up.

When they reached Gaiana, our heroes got a description of the moss from Sy, and promptly set down on the planet to search for it. Tau stayed on the ship. The planet was alive, moss, mushrooms, fungi, yadayada. Witch gathered a bunch of glowing purple mushrooms along the way.

Buzzing insects began to swarm and bite at our heroes. Then each of Hoenheim, K12, and Witch saw the others’ eyes turn purple and start to attack them. It was an illusion. Gasp. Hoenheim dug himself into the ground and figured out there was some weird spore stuff inside him with his alchemical sensing abilities, and with much difficulty removed it from his body.

Hoenheim tried to explain what was going on to Witch, who was telepathically communicating with him, but Witch just wouldn’t believe that this was an illusion. K12 got knocked out somehow, Hoenheim removed the spores from K12, Witch eventually decided “OK I guess Hoenheim isn’t lying” and Hoenheim removed the spores from her too.

Our heroes were soon contacted by Sy, who said similar things were happening to Dimitri and Olga, who were also on the planet in search of the moss. Our heroes suggested to Sy that he should bring Olga and Dimitri back on the ship, so that Hoenheim could cure them.

Then our heroes went back on the ship, and Hoenheim cured Olga and Dimitri.

With a shiny set of spacesuits to protect them, our heroes went back down to Gaiana’s surface. Eventually they came to a very dry area with vines all over the surface. The vines attacked and grabbed on to Witch. K12 decided the vines would be no match for fire, and launched a fire attack. All the vines caught on fire very rapidly, including the ones holding Witch, who began to take fire damage. Hoenheim freed Witch from the vines, as a strange gooey liquid began seeping out through the ground.

K12 realized that he had the perfect remedy to a bunch of fire – water! So he created a bunch of water and doused the area around Witch and Hoenheim. This caused the liquid seeping out through the ground to splash up, and Hoenheim and Witch took acid damage. This just wasn’t K12’s day.

But with Witch free, everyone got out of there. Fire and acid engulfed the area they left so it could be born anew. With damaged spacesuits, our heroes returned to the ship to get a new set.

This time, they decided to ask Sy a bit more about the planet, where they would find the moss, and what dangers to expect. Sy explained that he didn’t know about the illusory spores, but that the ground acid should be the most dangerous thing on the planet. He didn’t think our heroes would set it on fire. He also explained that the moss is found in damp environments, and is likely to grow underneath some of the tall tree-like fungi that are spread throughout the planet. He also explained that to gather the moss, they should cut out the root system with it, or it would promptly die. This wouldn’t be enough damage to the surface to trigger acidic death.

Our heroes went back down to Gaiana’s surface, and after some searching of humid areas eventually found the moss. They gathered it, and returned to the ship victorious.

And so, our heroes had found the elusive Molarian moss. Would this moss really help in unlocking K12’s powers and memories? What does K12’s past have in store? Would his luck finally improve? And what will Witch do with those glowing mushrooms? Find out next time on Protectors of Emerald City!

This is what happens when we take a day off

K12 was curious about what Sy had said earlier about unlocking his powers and memories, so he went over and asked. “Yeah, I think I can probably definitely get your Allauron powers back. There’s this moss – Molarian Moss – that grows on the planet Gaiana that I think will help. Gaiana’s super cool, it’s basically alive! It’s completely covered with moss and mushrooms and fungi and other kinds of—”

“But I want to go to Gaiana. Can we like, drop you off or something?” asked K12. The rest of the team felt that it would probably be a good idea to check in with the city before heading off to another planet. They decided to take a pit stop on Earth for a few days before heading out to Gaiana. The crew of the Hive was fine with this, as they had no pressing missions in the near future and could use the time for ship maintenance.

So Witch went to her shop, and the rest of our heroes hung out in Dr. Tau’s lab. K12 and Hoenheim were kind of hungry, so they order a pizza. Vegetarian, no onions, spicy peppers. Then Doctor Tau checks in with Alexis.

“Finally, where have you all been!?” exclaimed Alexis. “I’ve been trying to call you for hours!”

Alexis reminded our heroes about the group Humans First, which campaigns against superhumans. They argue that the city is worse off with the Protectors, and that the reason so many bad things come to the city is because we have them. They want to stop the use of Adamantite, regulate superhumans, and ban the use of superhuman abilities.

It seems that with the recent wave of anti-Protector sentiment following the Yomi incident, Humans First has become radical. Undoubtedly they want to put themselves in the spotlight to attract more followers.

The group had taken the entire TAISAR building hostage, demanding that they cease their research on Adamantite and hand over their entire stock of Adamantite to Humans First to be “destroyed”. An ominous shadowed figure appeared on several public television monitors stating these demands, and rambling about other changes that they would later be demanding of the city. They said the entire TAISAR building is rigged to explode. If any police or Protectors were detected snooping around, they would detonate the building. Thomas Arkman would have one day to give in to these demands.

Doctor Tau called up Shadow asking if she could trace the source of the transmission to the city television network. A little while later, she called back saying she wouldn’t be able to do it in the amount of time they had. The double-layer 4096-bit SHA-4 encrypted firewall was just too much. She would, however, be able to hack into the security camera network at TAISAR to give our heroes vision of what’s going on, as well as to loop the video feed if our heroes wanted to enter without detection.

Our heroes then spent an (understandably) unprecedented amount of time deciding what to do. They were unable to see anyone on the security feeds, but were unsure whether invisible foes were lurking about. Witch wanted to try to communicate telepathically with someone inside, but they were unsure how to tell whether the person would be a friend or invisible enemy. After much discussion and deliberation, our heroes set upon their task.

They reached the forest outside of TAISAR, and Witch began telepathically communicating with a random person inside the building. Witch pretended to be a reporter. The scientist was very confused, but told Witch how a voice on the PA system told everyone they need to stay in their offices and labs or the building would be detonated.

Eventually the Protectors told Shadow to start looping the video feed, and tunneled into the first basement floor of the building. Doctor Tau diffused the first bomb they found, and then showed Hoenheim how he could also diffuse this bomb using his alchemy. The rest of our heroes began evacuating the building through the tunnel, so as not to arouse suspicion of anyone who might be watching from outside the building. It turned out that Humans First had been doing everything remotely, apart from inconspicuously placing bombs throughout the building.

Soon our heroes had everyone evacuated, except for the top floor which held Thomas Arkmann’s offices. Our heroes were worried about what Arkmann might be doing with his Kawaii secretaries during the commotion. The office had been placed in lockdown.

Hoenheim attempted to transmute the blast door of the office, but found he was unable to do so. He couldn’t even identify the material the door was made out of! He attempted to find a weak point in the office, but the whole thing was surrounded by this impenetrable material. Nobody was responding from inside the office. Eventually our heroes left the building.

Soon after, Humans First figured out what our heroes had done. The silhouette on screens throughout the city began to rant, “Curse you, Protectors! We promise you, this will be the last time you thwart the will of the people! We’ll be back!”

Will our heroes be able to identify the perpetrators from Humans First? Will K12 regain his Allauron powers and memories? Will the Kawaii secretaries be safe? Find out next time on Protectors of Emerald City!

Alright let's do this. Leeroyyy!...

In this episode, our heroes helped the Plebians rescue Recon 542 from the S.S. Bakron. Doctor Tau and Witch snuck up to the ship using a small one-man vessel. Witch boarded it, and found Recon 542, the switch room, and the mainframe while avoiding some serpent-like security guards. They came up with a plan to have Witch disable the Bakron’s power while Doctor Tau teleported 542 onto the one-man ship and Witch back to the Plib ship.

Notably, when Witch found a large port labeled “don’t stick viruses here” in the mainframe room, she chose not to stick viruses there (as she didn’t have any with her). She did however unplug a bunch of ethernet-looking cables.

Some of you might have thought you remembered Doctor Tau teleporting people from outer space back to Earth, but this didn’t really happen. Doctor Tau’s teleport lock on his home base is still limited by the range of his portal device.

What’s in store for our heroes next? Will Jobe finally join up with the team on a mission? Will Sy be able to unlock K12’s powers? Will we find out what the Allaurons’ plans are for Earth or where Hoenheim’s father is? Will next week’s synopsis be as short, summarized, and lacking hyperlinks as this one? Find out next time on Protectors of Emerald City.

Also: Wow, she's actually a bee.

Having emerged victorious, our heroes looted Yomi Izanami’s hideout. Witch began frantically scouring the rooms for signs of “Book”, while the rest of our heroes more calmly explored the lair.

Doctor Tau came upon a room with many crystals, gems, and inscriptions laid about. He was particularly intrigued with a circular table in the center of the room. It had seven gemstones equally spaced around the edges of the table, with an alchemy circle intricately inscribed in the table. In the center of the table there was a piece of Adamantite.

Tau was suspicious, and carefully inspected the stones to ensure that he indeed thought they were plain gemstones and that the crystal in the center was indeed Adamantite. He then photographed the scene and gathered the gemstones and crystal up to take back to his lab. K12 and/or Hoenheim might also have come into the room to look at the setup, but the GM can’t remember.

Meanwhile, Witch came upon a small library. Along the edges of the room were sets of bookshelves, but Witch’s eyes were immediately drawn to the pedestal in the center of the room, which held a black book emanating a dark aura. This was Yomi’s Book that Witch sought.

Despite her enthusiasm, Witch was wary of this book, which was bound shut with black leather straps. She tried to open Book with her telekinetic powers, but the book refused to open. She sought out a fire poker to open Book with, but that also failed. Eventually she decided to open Book with her hands.

On touching Book, the dark aura that surrounded it was sucked into Witch through her hands, and the black lace that held Book shut dematerialized. WItch eagerly opened Book, only to see that the inside was blank. She spent some time looking at the book, using her arcane knowledge to sense what was going on. Doing this, she realized that Book thirsted for her blood. So she cut herself and gave it some. On doing this, the blood soaked into the pages of Book, and red lettering appeared.

Witch was excited by this, but explored the rest of the room rather than reading all of Book right now. She found many books that covered topics she was already familiar with, but also several on lightning magic and necromancy that were unknown to her. She looted a number of tomes to bring back to her shop for reading.

And so our heroes returned home. Witch went to her shop and began reading, while the rest of our heroes went to Doctor Tau’s lab. Oh, and they also brought back Yomi to be kept in a holding cell, while a more suitable cell gets constructed in the Emerald City Superprison.

At his lab, Doctor Tau did some further investigation of the crystal and gemstones he gathered at Yomi’s hideout. He discovered that these were indeed regular gemstones, and adamantite. He put the adamantite away in the drawer with his other crystals.

Then Doctor Tau spent a few hours walking aimlessly around his lab. He knew there was something he was forgetting to do, but entirely forgot what it was. And so he twiddled his thumbs. Eventually Hoenheim came up to Tau and asked him how the radar monitoring was going, and whether he had spotted any Plibs. “Right. That.” replied Tau, returning to the monitoring equipment.

On returning to the monitor, Tau discovered that here was in fact a Plib radio signal moving around Emerald City. It wasn’t moving along road or sewer lines, implying it was likely flying overhead. Hoenheim and K12 went out to investigate the source.

With Tau navigating from the lab, they eventually reached a rooftop very close to the radio source. “Skree! Thank goodness I found you, skree skree” went a voice overhead. A crow came down and landed on Hoenheim’s shoulder.

“Xal’Thuran was able to set up a meeting with the Plibs skree” said the crow. “Who are you and why on earth should we trust you? How do we know Xal’Thuran sent you?” asked K12. “Skree… he told me to tell you ‘hello brother’”. “I’m not convinced,” replied K12. However, K12 and Hoenheim agreed that they should probably follow along with the crow anyways, wary for a trap.

The crow explained that they were to go to a certain field east of Emerald City in a day. A tracker on the crow would allow the Plibs to locate our heroes and beam them onto their ship in orbit around Earth.

[GM’s note: 15 minutes to session so the synopsis will have to speed up a bit]

The crow also took a liking to Hoenheim.

The next day our heroes and the crow went to the aforementioned field and waited to be beamed up. With a flash of light, they soon found themselves inside the spaceship in a room made of a steel-like metal. A man with black hair, thick prescription goggles, and a lab coat opened the door to the room. “Great, it worked! We weren’t quite sure if the beamer worked on this thing”. The goggle-clad individual introduced himself as Sy. “You should come meet the rest of the crew!”

Our group was introduced to the rest of the crew. Auntie Bee was in fact a bee, and spoke to our heroes with telepathy. Chio (short for Xi’Orath) was a tabby cat and also communicated telepathically. Olga “the Butcher” and Dimitri “the Hunter” were two recons placed in the Russian government who were rescued by the Plibs.

Sy showed our heroes this cool fluid he invented that, when sprayed on glass, makes it so it doesn’t get dirty! Tau was very excited about this, and the two agreed to have Tau distribute it on Earth in some way.

There was some amount of discussion about the situation of the Plibs and Allaurons in general, but the GM is fuzzy on the details. Auntie Bee did explain that the Plibs in general want to free the Plebians from the rule of the Borgs, but that their vessel’s job is currently to rescue individual Plebs from the Borgs. Oh, and there exist 1342 sentient species in the universe that the Allaurons are aware of.

The Plibs told our heroes they could help look for Hoenheim’s father, and Sy was quite excited to try to unlock K12’s powers and memories, but the Plibs told our heroes that they have a pressing mission on hand to rescue a recon. They would like our heroes’ help. Our heroes agreed to assist the Plibs on this mission.

What will Witch learn from Book when she returns? How will our heroes rescue the recon? Will Sy’s eternal window cleaner achieve international acclaim? Find out in a future episode of Protectors of Emerald City!

"Yep, it's definitely a rock."

Doctor Tau gathered a sample of rock from the crumbled pseudo-Witch, and brought it back to his lab to analyze. Meanwhile Witch went back to her shop, while Hoenheim and K12 did Hoenheim and K12 stuff. And of course, Hoenheim didn’t do it alone, whatever it was.

When she returned to her shop, Witch found it had been trashed, presumably by Yomi but potentially by disgruntled citizens of Emerald City. She began cleaning it up, and this took the remainder of the day. At the end of the day, Witch received a call from her cultist friend, who has a friend of a friend whose husband took off north of the city to join Yomi‘s cult. The friend wasn’t sure where.

Meanwhile, back at the lab, Doctor Tau was making slow progress. For the first few hours, all he could determine was that this was, indeed, a sample of rock. He called over Hoenheim to help, and together they made a breakthrough discovery, determining it came from Withering Peak, a mountain north of Emerald City.

And so, having corroborated the information gained by Witch and Tau, our heroes set off to Withering Peak.

At Withering Peak, Hoenheim picked up the trail of a cultist and scouted ahead. Once he determined the cultist hideout was just nearby, Witch took over, using her powers of concealment. She entered the clearing where the hideout was located, and saw a ring of cultists around a fire below a balcony where Yomi watched over them. The hideout itself was made of bones, and was built into the side of the mountain. Seeing this, Witch returned to the rest of the group.

Our heroes decided on a plan of attack. They would approach the hideout from further up on the mountain, and tunnel into the hideout from behind. They took some time to stealthily circle the mountain, and began tunneling in. Eventually they came to the ceiling of a room with three cultists below.

Breaking through the rock ceiling, our heroes got the jump on the cultists, and swiftly took them out. But lo and behold, another cultist soon came into the room to see what was causing all this noise. Spotting the Protectors, the cultist turned and ran, shouting for help. Doctor Tau was swift to place a portal bringing this cultist back into the room, and the cultist was unable to escape. But the alarm had been sounded; Soon more cultists came piling into the room, and Yomi discovered the intruders.

However, with their fortified position and superior ability, our heroes quickly dispatched of all the cultists who entered the room. Yomi too was taken down, while the GM was in too much of a feverish haze to remember the details. And so our heroes emerged victorious, and began to loot the hideout.

Will Witch finally “find book”? What other texts and tomes might she find? Will we finally get back to the Allauron plotline? Find out next time on Protectors of Emerald City!